The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : WHO centres to address workers’ health problems

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

WHO centres to address workers’ health problems

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: Only 15 per cent of the total workforce in the world has access to healthcare facilities, said Gerry Eijkemans, head of Occupational Health Group, Occupational Health Programme of the World Health Organisation.

It is to address this lacuna that the WHO has established 70 centres across the world to collaborate and work out a global plan of action in which political will plays a major part, she told reporters here on Monday.

“We are seeing new hazards such as stress,” much of it caused by modern gadgets such as computer and mobile phones. “Asia and Latin America have more workers. We are looking for centres that would translate research knowledge into practice,” she said. If the needs of the workforce must be addressed, then labour unions must also be involved, she pointed out.

It is with this aim that the WHO has chosen Sri Ramachandra University for collaboration. “With a three-pronged approach of research, advanced academic training and valuable outreach services for a large number of industries, the SRU-WHO centre is expected to meet not only the local industry’s requirements but also contribute in significant ways to occupational health programmes at the state, regional and national levels,” said Kalpana Balakrishnan, head of the Department of Environmental Health Engineering, SRU.

The department proposes to expand its current short-term programmes and include distance mode education programmes to train those employed.

The SRU is the second WHO centre in the country and the third in southeast Asia. The WHO has collaborations with the National Institute of Occupational Health in Ahmedabad and the Ministry of Public Health in Bangkok, Thailand.

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss will formally inaugurate the centre and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB)-accredited biodosimetry laboratory on Wednesday at a function coinciding with the Founder’s Day celebration at the university in Porur.

“Ours is the first non-Department of Atomic Energy organisation to be accredited by the AERB to carry out biodosimetry using chromosomal aberration,” said Solomon F.D. Paul, head, Department of Human Genetics. Normally people wear physical dosimeters when they are working with radioactive material. This makes it easy to measure the exposure. In the event of accidental exposure or catastrophe, biological dosimeters are used to estimate the dose received and decide on the management of the exposed area, he explained.

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